This Month:

Field Trips
April Birdsong
Attracting Birds

APRIL BIRDS

Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are back!

April is the month we welcome back our little jewels of the bird kingdom, the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. Honeysuckle, Carolina Jessamine and Azaleas are blooming, so they have plenty of nectar to choose from. Male hummingbirds usually return from their winter homes in Mexico or Central America ahead of the females and seek out areas with nectar-rich flowers where they may establish a territory of a quarter acre or more.

According to the "Stokes Guide to Bird Behavior, Volume 111," hummingbirds do not pair for any length of time. They are promiscuous and only have contact briefly during mating. The female alone builds the nest, which may take from one to ten days. The nest is a tiny structure which looks like a knot on a limb. If you ever find one, consider yourself very lucky.

The tiny white eggs, usually two, are laid in the morning and there is an interval of one day between layings, and incubation is about 16 days by the female only. She gets no help from the beautiful male who spends his time guarding his feeder and chasing away all the other birds. That’s why it’s a good idea to have more than one feeder. Drives him crazy but at least the females and immatures get a chance.

Speaking of feeders, if you have not already done so, put your feeder up immediately! You can make your own hummer juice by using the formula of one cup of sugar to four cups of water. You don’t need to boil the water and you don’t need to add red coloring. Most feeders have red on them and that will attract the hummers. I make up a quart at a time and refrigerate part of it. In hot weather, you will need to change the sugar water once a week and clean the bottles. Try adding an Oriole feeder too and you may enjoy the company of Orchard Orioles and Downy Woodpeckers who love the sugar water too.

The Oriole feeder has larger feeding holes and is usually orange in color. You can use the same recipe as you do for the hummers.

SOME GREAT PLANTS FOR ATTRACTING BIRDS

This spring consider plants that are attractive to birds. For privacy/windbreak, Will Cook, who maintains the Carolina Birds website, recommends that you plant our native Eastern Redcedar or the Atlantic White-Cedar instead of the overplanted Leyland Cypress. Birds love it and it doesn’t get huge like the Leyland does. Cedar Waxwings were named for their love of it. A perennial that I have fallen in love with is the Salvia elegans – Pineapple Sage. It has the most beautiful scarlet blooms in October-December and attracts migrating western hummingbirds. Mexican Sage is another plant that is attractive to butterflies. Those two sages planted together make a stunning statement and are alive with butterflies in the fall. If you want the entire list of Will’s recommended plants, click on http://www.duke.edu/-cwcook/.

If you are interested in birding with our very informal group and learning how to identify birds by their songs, you can give me a call at 249-2646 or e-mail me at harbinger@cconnect.net. We usually bird on Wednesdays and meet at the Wildlife Ramp in Oriental.